Egyptian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that Cairo is seeking Arab support to counter Western calls for protecting Arab Christians who have been recently attacked in Iraq and Egypt.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hossam Zaki said that his country will propose that the next Sharm el-Sheikh Arab Economic Summit to discuss a resolution condemning “Western interference in domestic Arab affairs under the pretext of protecting Christians.”
“Egypt rejects such claims both in form and substance and that it,” Zaki said, adding that these calls will only contribute to further fuming sectarian tensions in the Middle East.
Poland's Foreign Ministry says four EU governments have asked the bloc's foreign policy chief to take up the issue of recent attacks against Christians.
Ministry spokesman Marcin Bosacki told the Associated Press on Friday that the foreign ministers of Poland, Italy, France and Hungary have sent a joint letter to Catherine Ashton suggesting that the EU "look into" the recent "wave of attacks on Christians."
Bosacki refused to disclose further details.
A bomb attack on worshippers of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority on Christmas Day in Alexandria killed 23 and left nearly 100 wounded.
An attack last fall on Catholics in Baghdad claimed 68 lives.
